Oh shit its 5:30am, and we are already 1 hour late, hung over and headed for San Diego (85 miles). It’s foggy and everything is wet. Steven, the captain, had upgraded the chart plotter/ radar yesterday, so it was to be an easy departure from the narrow harbor, but no such luck. Using the big light again to see the unlit derelict boats, we made it out of the inner harbor only to have major navigation problems. The upgrades had turned the chart plotter radar screens upside down, so left was right and vis versa. After some confused comments and some shouting, the display screens were fixed and off we motored into the foggy dark morning. The fog was just at water level, if you looked up you could see the stars. The morning passed uneventful until 9:45 when, off the starboard bow, came two thundering cannon reports. The NAVY had begun shelling something close but we couldn’t see because of the fog. It turns out they had begun an all day shelling and bombing of San Clement Island 10 miles west of the boat. You could feel the concussions through your body as they blasted away. At 2:00 pm we rigged the sails, mostly for practice as the winds were still too light to actually sail. However, we did sailed for one hour, running wing on wing, slow and off course but we sailed! We put away the sails about 15 minutes before the Santa Ana winds picked up and changed the wind direction to back on the nose. Oh well, that’s Murphy’s law for you. Under clear starlit skies we arrived in SD around 800pm, and headed for Point Loma. We were immediately hailed by an unlit 300 ft Coast Guard cutter advising us (and being that they are much bigger than us so we better do what they ask) to steer away from them, and the harbor we were heading to, until they finished launching helicopters.
After a quick delay we were back on course to check in with the Harbor patrol, as this is mandatory. When we arrived the office was closed, so we are spent the night in jail, Okay at the jail, because of the patriot act we must check in with local law enforcement before we can go to our next and final US stop. We then head south of the border.
Water tanks are refilled. 1 week’s water usage was 125 gallons or 5 gal per person per day. Brian drinks about a gallon of water minimum a day, so that’s amazing!
Practicing on the way to San Diego - Wing on Wing, baby - Nice!
Motoring to S.D. - notice how flat the water is= no wind!
Brian Captured this awesome night picture of dolphins swiming underwater. They escorted us in to San Diego as they played in the Boat wake, as they often do. I love that!
Kitty on the moring watch, at the Helm
Practicing on the way to San Diego - Wing on Wing, baby - Nice!
Motoring to S.D. - notice how flat the water is= no wind!
Brian Captured this awesome night picture of dolphins swiming underwater. They escorted us in to San Diego as they played in the Boat wake, as they often do. I love that!
